It's just a theory. Still, if I was in charge, I 100% would have killed him if I was NRS, and if it were true, It's not a justification; it's a business decision.
A single characters competitive play potential isn't worth the damage he was doing to the game. He was turning people off of the game, both as players and as viewers. They made this huge push to try and spotlight the competitive scene with IJ2, and viewership just isn't as strong as MKX. That's not all DS fault, but DS crawling all over top 8's sure wasn't helping me stay interested. I've been a pretty rabid FG viewer over the past two or three years, and he made for some of the most painfully, uninteresting and strait up frustrating viewing in the entirety of FG streaming.
There is a show being put on, and DS has zero star power or screen presence. Contrast that to Dr. Fate who is actually fun to watch, and start thinking who is better of being in the top 10 (all other things being equal) if you are trying to promote viewership and long term interest in the game.
Does that mean they couldn't try to normalize him a bit more if he was bottom 1? No. But if his core design demands he be really really good or really really bad, then I don't think the game or scene is improved by buffing him. I understand that's a radical viewpoint, but it's where I'm at.